MARIETTA, Ga. - Mr. Thomas Watson Brown, of Marietta, died Saturday, January 13. He was 73.

Born in Washington, D.C., Mr. Brown attended Saint Alban's School. He received his A.B. in history from Princeton University, where he graduated magna cum laude. After serving briefly in the United States Army, Mr. Brown attended Harvard Law School, graduating with his L.L.B. in 1959. He moved to Atlanta where he practiced law until his death. Mr. Brown led numerous business, civic, philanthropic and scholarly organizations. He was the former Chairman of Spartan Communications, Inc., a television broadcasting company. He served on the boards of the Atlanta Historical Society, the Georgia Historical Society, the Georgia Civil War Commission, the Atlanta Legal Aid Society and the Georgia Legal History Foundation. He was a life trustee of Mercer University. Mr. Brown was a past president of the Atlanta Civil War Round Table, the Lawyer's Club of Atlanta and the Advocates, Ltd., the Atlanta Legal Aid Society and the Atlanta Lawyers Club. He chaired the Atlanta Symposium, the Mercer University Press and the Watson-Brown Foundation. He was an enthusiastic supporter of the Atlanta Press Club. Mr. Brown was an intellectual and a respected historian, but he is perhaps remembered best as a Civil War scholar and a raconteur of the first order. The great-grandson of former Georgia U.S. Senator Thomas E. Watson, Mr. Brown was a lifelong Jeffersonian Democrat and a staunch defender of the South.

He is preceded in death by his first wife, Mary Ellen McLaughlin Brown, his second wife, Ann Henderson West Brown, and two sons, John Judson Brown, II and John Durham West Brown.

He is survived by his remaining four children, Melissa Ellen Brown Cummings of Massillon, Ohio, Thomas Watson Brown, Jr. of Evans,, Anne Georgia Lawrence Brown McCarroll of Memphis, Tenn., and Elizabeth Courtney Brown of Marietta; and eight grandchildren. Mr. Brown is also survived by a cadre of loyal friends whose support and companionship, especially in his failing years, provided him immortal humor, succor, and strength.

Funeral services were held at 2 p.m. Wednesday, January 17, on the west lawn of Hickory Hill, historic home of Thomas E. Watson, in Thomson,.